Copilot in SharePoint, which is used to build sites and pages using natural language, is being upgraded with new content creation and automation features, as well as additional measures to increase users’ trust in answers provided by Copilot.
Microsoft outlined nearly a dozen upgrades to Copilot in SharePoint in a recent blog post; in this analysis, I’ll share details on a handful of those that I consider to be the most impactful.
Content, Report Creation
Customers can ask Copilot in SharePoint to create a Word document, Excel workbook, or PowerPoint presentation directly from within their SharePoint content. This feature will turn knowledge contained within sites into shareable content quickly, eliminating the previous need to copy and paste between apps. An example use case provided by Microsoft: a manager can turn project notes into a first-draft PowerPoint for presentation to management.
Another content-creation update is the ability to generate HTML reports from content housed in SharePoint. This lets users put information into a shareable, interactive view that’s optimized for use in meetings or dashboards, without the need to perform manual formatting. Example use case: generating an interactive summary of a document library to share progress on a project with coworkers.
Automating Repeatable Work
Natural language configuration for request tracking and approvals, another new feature in Copilot for SharePoint, provides built-in approval tracking to manage sign-offs, requests, and reviews, without the need for custom approval flows. Example use case: a content manager can set up automated approval steps for documents to be reviewed by employees before they publish.
New features related to business rules let users configure email notifications to alert employees when content or metadata changes. This ensures employees stay abreast of what matters because they’re notified automatically, instead of manually checking for updates.
Skills and Trust
Skills are specialized instructions that teach an agent or copilot how to handle repeatable tasks. Copilot in SharePoint now uses built-in skills to help users create their own skills, set up automations, and launch SharePoint sites. This makes it easier to turn repeatable processes into reusable skills without starting from scratch, and ensures consistency of work.
The final enhancement we’ll cover here relates to answers provided by Copilot in SharePoint, which have been improved to be easier to read, verify, and trust. Citations are now compact and clickable so users can jump directly to a source of information. Copilot will surface sensitivity labels on content to prevent oversharing and comply with privacy requirements. When using reasoning models, Copilot can now share its chain of thought so users understand how it developed an answer.
More SharePoint and AI Insights:
- SharePoint AI Features Streamline Content Creation
- Microsoft Scout Enhancements Increase AI Model Flexibility
- Finance AI Agent Upgraded With Centralized Views, Data Insight Through Chatbot Interface
